LONDON 6th August 2018. Dr Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health at their offices in London. Stephen Lock for the National
LONDON 6th August 2018. Dr Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health at their offices in London. Stephen Lock for the National
LONDON 6th August 2018. Dr Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health at their offices in London. Stephen Lock for the National
LONDON 6th August 2018. Dr Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health at their offices in London. Stephen Lock for the National

AI can be a coach for health says Babylon founder


Damien McElroy
  • English
  • Arabic

It is just shy of 5pm in a London office block and the entrepreneur Ali Parsa taps on his phone. Seconds later he has a doctor’s consultation booked for 7.20pm.

“That’s the longest I’ve ever had to wait,” he exclaims. “I’ve never seen an appointment wait this long and it’s still less than three hours.”

Just four short years after its launch, the promise of his Babylon health service as a diagnostic platform is being delivered.  As a self-proclaimed industry disruptor, the former Goldman Sachs executive has set his sights on a far more ambitious goal to ensure artificial intelligence can act as a health coach to protect users throughout their lives.

Using the app: Babylon stumbles on popping knees, but app goes the distance 

Babylon is an online doctor service that operates in both Britain and Rwanda, while its artificial intelligence platforms are widely available in corporate partnerships around the world.

An agreement with the Dubai Health Authority to develop the service in the UAE was signed earlier this year. To Dr Parsa, the accord will demonstrate the promise of AI goes far beyond chatbots and video consultations.

“In the UAE there is a significant amount of doctors, so why duplicate that – why go creating more doctors,” he asks. “Why not add to the immediacy and the accuracy of the service.

“Why not put the artificial intelligence in the pocket of every UAE citizen so that they actually can have the benefits AI but then if they need to talk to an actual doctor they can go and do that as they do now," the former refugee says.

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Read more:

A stomach implant, a sensor and a smartphone - can obesity be cured via an app?

Exclusive: Full body health scanners chosen for UAE trial to aid early diagnosis

The National Future Forum: what can we expect from the future?

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That is a step beyond what Babylon has offered so far. “First of all we trained the system in artificial intelligence to become the best doctor there can be,” he says.

There are obvious cost savings for patient, provider and the state. Out of 3,000 initial interactions, Mr Parsa estimates that around 1,000 led to video consultations and just 100 need face-to-face meetings with medical staff. Up to two-thirds of healthcare costs can be eaten up in salaries and infrastructure.

The trim and energetic, 55-year-old, who walked across the mountains of Afghanistan as a teenager to escape from his Iranian homeland, sets out the bigger challenge of catching a medical problem much earlier in the cycle. By the time symptoms present, he says, a $10 problem often needs a $1000 solution.

This is where the greatest potential of artificial intelligence sits.  “It learns incredibly fast. Now it needs to become the best psychologist it can be,” he says. “It needs to treat more and more specialties not just do general medicine. More healthcare maintenance, how to keep you at the peak of your health, how to monitor you, how to coach you and how to predict your disease before the symptoms happen.

“How do we take what we know today about behavioural science and use that to get the machine to become incredibly more effective?  Keeping you in compliance with your physiotherapy, with the way you should eat, with the way you should be active, with the way you should do cognitive training. We could be amazingly helpful.”

Diagnosis is a matter of probability analysis and machines are very good at it, according to Dr Parsa. In tests, while on average doctors made the correct diagnosis 72 per cent, the figure for the Babylon system came out at 81 per cent on average and 98 per cent on problems it had seen before.

With more than 2 million paid-up users worldwide, including 30,000 regular NHS patients in the UK, Babylon is not just an app. It operates as a call centre service in Rwanda where there is much lower smartphone penetration in the population. A new service on Amazon’s Alexa will provide an alternative platform for the service.

In Britain’s state-funded health care system, Babylon faces allegations of cherry-picking the young, tech-savvy (and healthy) away from existing clinics that lose revenue while still having to treat those more prone to get sick. But to Dr Parsa it is patronising to say the elderly don’t use the technology, which is more convenient than getting out of the house and down to the doctor.

The overall global approach, however, varies with a heavy reliance partnership with local players that know the gaps of service best.

“We can’t have the arrogance to say we know best,” he tells The National. “In each market, you can’t have the arrogance of saying I have only one solution and that solution has to work everywhere. In the United States, we do a very different thing. In the US we are working with the health systems and the providers and employees.

Chinese messaging platforms offer an entirely new dimension to Babylon, offering a partner that already analyses every aspect of their users digital footprint.

“They know everything, they know every step the people take,” he said. “What is the point of us trying to replicate that when they know Chinese consumer so well. Equally, it’s very hard for them to understand healthcare in the way we do.”

While the logical solution to problems is often simple to devise, it can be less easy to provide working solutions. “How to minimise the time of the doctors and the nurses and how to maximise the accuracy of the technology is the science behind our products”, he says.

The race to bring AI into the heart of healthcare will, he predicts, resemble the rapid concentration of the personal computer industry four decades ago.

“When personal computers came along, it was hobbyist industry. But from the late 1980s there very few global suppliers,” he said. “When we first started there were so many contenders and already today the number is very low. People look under the bonnet, they see who has depth and who doesn’t.”

Babylon is thriving because no one can risk their reputations by tying up with an unreliable system. “What does it mean to Prudential or Samsung to put their name alongside Babylon? It’s about trust,” he said. “As long as somebody makes healthcare access more affordable and put it in the hands of every human being on the earth, I’m happy.”

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Second Test

In Dubai

Pakistan 418-5 (declared)
New Zealand 90 and 131-2 (follow on)

Day 3: New Zealand trail by 197 runs with 8 wickets remaining

Company%20Profile
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RESULTS
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm

Price: From Dh1,700,000

Available: Now

INFO

Everton 0

Arsenal 0

Man of the Match: Djibril Sidibe (Everton)

One-off T20 International: UAE v Australia

When: Monday, October 22, 2pm start

Where: Abu Dhabi Cricket, Oval 1

Tickets: Admission is free

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Darcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Peter Siddle

Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar. 

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1:  Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6:  The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29:  At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite  a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa. 

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO

Karnataka Tuskers 110-5 (10 ovs)

Tharanga 48, Shafiq 34, Rampaul 2-16

Delhi Bulls 91-8 (10 ovs)

Mathews 31, Rimmington 3-28

Karnataka Tuskers win by 19 runs

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

The Year Earth Changed

Directed by:Tom Beard

Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough

Stars: 4

If you go

The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Luang Prabang via Bangkok, with a return flight from Chiang Rai via Bangkok for about Dh3,000, including taxes. Emirates and Thai Airways cover the same route, also via Bangkok in both directions, from about Dh2,700.
The cruise
The Gypsy by Mekong Kingdoms has two cruising options: a three-night, four-day trip upstream cruise or a two-night, three-day downstream journey, from US$5,940 (Dh21,814), including meals, selected drinks, excursions and transfers.
The hotels
Accommodation is available in Luang Prabang at the Avani, from $290 (Dh1,065) per night, and at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort from $1,080 (Dh3,967) per night, including meals, an activity and transfers.

Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes. 
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com

Specs

Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request

Results

2pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (Dirt) 1,200m, Winner: Mouheeb, Tom Marquand (jockey), Nicholas Bachalard (trainer)

2.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Honourable Justice, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer

3pm: Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dahawi, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi

3.30pm: Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dark Silver, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash

4pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Dark Of Night. Antonio Fresu, Al Muhairi.

4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Habah, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson

Brief scores:

Day 1

Toss: India, chose to bat

India (1st innings): 215-2 (89 ov)

Agarwal 76, Pujara 68 not out; Cummins 2-40

Sri Lanka v England

First Test, at Galle
England won by 211

Second Test, at Kandy
England won by 57 runs

Third Test, at Colombo
From Nov 23-27

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

Brief scoreline:

Wales 1

James 5'

Slovakia 0

Man of the Match: Dan James (Wales)

Fireball

Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.

A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.

"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.

The specs: 2018 BMW X2 and X3

Price, as tested: Dh255,150 (X2); Dh383,250 (X3)

Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four-cylinder (X2); 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder (X3)

Power 192hp @ 5,000rpm (X2); 355hp @ 5,500rpm (X3)

Torque: 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (X2); 500Nm @ 1,520rpm (X3)

Transmission: Seven-speed automatic (X2); Eight-speed automatic (X3)

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.7L / 100km (X2); 8.3L / 100km (X3)

The%20specs
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Brief scores:

Toss: Kerala Knights, opted to fielf

Pakhtoons 109-5 (10 ov)

Fletcher 32; Lamichhane 3-17

Kerala Knights 110-2 (7.5 ov)

Morgan 46 not out, Stirling 40

SERIES SCHEDULE

First Test, Galle International Stadium
July 26-30
Second Test, Sinhalese Sports Club Ground
August 3-7
Third Test, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 12-16
First ODI, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
August 20
Second ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 24
Third ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 27
Fourth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
August 31
Fifth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
September 3
T20, R Premadasa Stadium
September 6

Moving%20Out%202
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20SMG%20Studio%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Team17%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsoles%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nintendo%20Switch%2C%20PlayStation%204%26amp%3B5%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20One%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A